Swatch Have Developed Super Battery For Electric Cars

Is that a lot of hot air or has Swatch really built a battery for electric cars that is 30% more powerful? Currently, smart boss Nick Hayek claims that the subsidiary Belenos would have developed such a battery, with which a Tesla can drive 780 km instead of 530 km far.

That would be a sensation.

Little is known about Belenos. The website of the company based in Itingen in the Basel region is very scarce and reveals almost nothing about the technology that is to be responsible for the unusual battery performance.

It is nevertheless known that engineers from the renowned ETH Zurich have participated in the development.

In an interview with the magazine Bilanz, Hayek merely explained that the batteries are based on vanadium instead of lithium.

This, however, was already known. Belenos was founded in 2008, the research is preceded by the emeritus ETH chemistry professor Reinhard Nesper.

Batteries are based on vanadium pentoxide

Ten years ago the company had the idea to research alternative materials to build more powerful batteries.

During the research, the chemists encountered vanadium and in recent years have concentrated entirely on batteries based on vanadium pentoxide.

Vanadium is available in large quantities, not as expensive as lithium, and can be easily recycled.

Meanwhile, the technology is so sophisticated that the company has built up a production facility in Itingen and will start the first practice tests in March.

According to Hayek, the first electric cars are to go to China in cooperation with China’s Geely Geely, which is also owned by Volvo, allegedly “from the desert to the Himalayas,” says Hayek.

30% more power at the same weight

Compared to lithium-ion batteries, the battery’s performance should be 30% higher with the same weight.

At the same time, the lifetime of the Belenos battery should be twice as high. The charging times should be halved. This would make the battery really a superakuu if everything is true.

Photo:Belenos

Should the battery technology prove itself in the model experiment in China, Swatch together with Geely wants to found a joint

venture to build the batteries in China.

The batteries for the European market will be produced by Smart in its factory in Boncourt, Switzerland.

Costs for car batteries are expected to fall to 6,000 Swiss francs

Through scale effects, Hayek plans to reduce the cost of a car battery from currently 13,500 to 6,000 Swiss francs.

The entrepreneur expects that by 2020, 17 million electric cars will be sold. 2.5 million of these will be powered by the Belenos battery.

Power in Hayek’s bill sales of 10 to 15 billion dollars.

However, Hayek has a serious opponent in Elon Musk. He is not only building the world’s largest battery factory in the US, but has also announced a European launch.

In addition, there are now also other battery concepts, which are very promising. In particular, the Redox Flow batteries provide voltage because they also promise enormous power increases.

Corresponding developments already exist in Jena and in France.

George Clooney has bought himself from Belenos. Nevertheless, investors also believe in Hayek’s battery technology.

In addition to the Hayek family itself, which holds 51%, celebrities such as the former Deutsche Bank head Josef Ackermann and the actor George Clooney at Belenos, as well as the ETH Zurich and the investment subsidiaries of the Deutsche Bank.